Recently I just finished up the last several weeks on 1AA football, which is also known as the FCS. I must admit that when the NCAA changed the name from 1AA to FCS I fought the change. I have known it as 1AA for a long time and that was imbedded in my head. After the past couple of weeks and years I am getting a little more comfortable calling it FCS but at times I still mix that up with BCS or FBS or whatever other initials are going around right now.

When comparing the amount of coverage the FCS gets in preview magazines it pales in comparison to the FBS. This year, Lindy’s has 4 pages in their national magazine devoted to the FCS. Athlon devoted none and The Sporting News who merged with Street and Smiths in ’08 had 18 pages devoted to 1AA or FCS teams last year.

Last year we devoted 136 pages of FCS coverage in our ACC/Big East regional. We went to a half-page on each FCS school and this year we have expanded our coverage again. I am pleased to announce that we now have devoted a full page each on all of the 124 teams in the FCS and expanded our coverage to 175 pages strictly on the FCS! Every team has a full page with the last 6 years results, 2009 statistical leaders that are bold and un-bold showing which players are coming back, the last 6 years statistics, this year’s schedule and a complete position by position breakdown which we expanded this year (roughly 1000 to 1500 words on each team)!

I would like in the near future to have the same amount of coverage on FCS schools that we devote to the FBS schools but I need your help to get the word out. I know there are many passionate FCS fans out there and if you would like to see a stand-alone FCS magazine let us know by purchasing the magazine. This year I went on blind faith to devote more coverage but I need to see more proof that a stand-alone FCS magazine will do well.

The FCS coverage can be found in this year’s SEC/ACC/Big East regional magazine, which also has 4 pages on every SEC/ACC/Big East team and 328 pages overall (same as national FBS mag)! This regional will be available on newsstands in the Southeast/Coastal/ Northeastern regions in 3 to 4 weeks but you can purchase it through our offices for $13.70 (includes priority shipping) and we will ship them out the day we get them in our offices (about 2 weeks). Call 1-866-918-7711 to get your copy today!

Remember most FBS teams (85) are scheduling one FCS team a year now as there are 89 games this year involving FCS vs FBS teams! Arizona State, Virginia, Syracuse, Ball State & San Jose State each play two FCS teams in 2010 and there will be 15 FCS schools playing two games vs. FBS competition this year. Some are of the marquee matchups involve Florida taking on Appalachian St, North Carolina plays William & Mary and Temple takes on cross-town rival and defending FCS champ Villanova. If you want to become an expert and get a detailed breakdown on the FCS team your favorite school maybe playing this year there is no better way than purchasing our FCS regional mag!

Also if you are FCS fan and would like to see our FCS regional magazine in your school bookstore please email brandon@philsteele.com and give us the contact # for the bookstore and we will try to get the magazines available there for you to purchase.

The Top 30 Countdown that we did several weeks ago for the FBS teams was wildly successful so please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which starts today with #25 Liberty. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

I will be back on Monday with a new series of blogs that answers the question “Which schools were conference teams of the decade?” Have a great weekend!